We made owls...

Our cake toppers are done. My wonderful sister is an awesome sculptor... and my husband downloaded that extremely popular iphone app that lets you take the old-fashioned looking pictures... this is almost a month late, but here they are:

I will try to get some better pictures of them at some point... I'm not sure where our big fancy camera has gotten to, though... haven't seen it since the zoo.

Blargh!

I am sick. Not bad sick... more like undefined sick... I have a sort of gentle ache in my chest and an occasional twinge in my throat and I feel like I could sleep for the next 6 weeks. In short, I'm not sick enough to go to a doctor... just sick enough to spend an entire day either napping or sitting at the computer trying to decide if it's too soon to take another nap. As I am currently in between naps and haven't done much blogging (despite the fact that last weekend was pleasantly blogable) I thought that I should attempt to do it.

Last weekend was fantastic (and much too short).

Ryan was off work (which in and of itself is miraculous) and we had tickets to see Dave Mathews and Jason Mraz at Wrigley Field. The only picture we have of this is on Ryan's phone and I have no idea how to get it so, no pictures, sorry.

I have to tell you that while the music was good the setting was HORRIBLE it was quite a bit like watching it on tv while sitting in uncomfortable stadium seats getting pot smoke blown at you. We won't be returning to Wrigley for a concert anytime soon. Especially because we found out two days later that some terrorist had been planning to blow up Wrigleyville at the end of the concert and that had he not made the unfortunate (for him) choice to pick an FBI informant as an accomplice I would either not be around to be making this blog post or I would be doing it from a hospital room possible missing important parts of my body. Oh, and there was a shooting on the "L" after the concert that night as well, though it doesn't seem like it was the line we were on... it definitely wasn't the train we were on anyway.... Basically the whole thing wasn't worth the amount of mortal peril we found out we were in days later...

Saturday I had to work and then we partook of our new favorite hobby... watching Top Gear. For those of you unfamiliar with Top Gear it is a BBC show about sports cars. Ryan likes the cars and I like the brash British humour and interplay between the hosts. This works for us.

Sunday we decided to drive up to Madison to go to the zoo.

It's about an hour's drive there, but the zoo is free. It was a generally good, if a little rainy, time. Here are some pictures of bears

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We also saw some bison. Ryan (I'm not even making this up) took this picture BECAUSE of the poop. Totally classy and mature.

We also saw some prairie dogs:

They were totally cute because they heard some geese making alarm noises and they all scurried to their holes and looked all alert...

The second one was a pathetic digger.

Porcupines are adorable. I wanted to pet them. They are in an enclosure that would have allowed me to pet them... this seems like bad planning

This little turtle had a HUGE neck, check it out!

These frogs are poisonous and behind glass. Isn't Ryan awesome at taking zoo pictures?

And we'll end the zoo portion of the post with an artistic photo of a bat.

After that we tried to find a diner to eat at (because we are diner people), but when we couldn't we ended up at The Melting Pot. We are not really swanky dining sorts of people, but it was still fun. Here is a picture of Ryan with some sort of entity:

Oh wait... that's just steam rising off of the pot in the middle of the table... drats, thought we may have actually had something there...

and here is a photo of the two of us taken by the nice manager guy:

Then we took a rainy drive home and listened to CarTalk. It was a wonderful weekend.

A Bee in Your Bonnet....

So, we finally went and registered for wedding stuff... we managed to make a very tiny and pathetic list of things we "need". We also managed to experience some hilarity major stress...

While we were debating whether or not we wanted canisters or plastic containers or something to store our flour and sugar in a bee flew in and landed on my head. Not realizing it was a bee I calmly swatted whatever it was away. At which point it flew at Ryan.... and landed on his pants. He started freaking out and I tried to keep him calm.

"I don't want it to fly up my pants and sting me... it happened once when I was in kindergarten...." Ryan said (which is a bad move because apparently bees have very good hearing and our also a bit sadistic... or maybe he just has a flower-scented undercarriage). Whatever the reason, as soon as he said this the bee walk to the hem of his shorts and promptly crawled up them.

At this point I am trying not to laugh (it's not working) and he looks like he can't decide if punching me is worth getting stung in his nethers... In an attempt to be helpful I laid down on the floor to look up and see where the bee is. I can't see it. (by the way, we are still in front of the canisters at Bed, Bath and Beyond). He informs me that the reason I can't see it is because it has crawled all the way up to his groin area... I lose it. I am basically rolling on the floor laughing... and he is trying to walk without jostling it too much so that he can go to the bathroom and remove it.

He made it about two steps before giving up and attempting to gently shake it out of his pants. This worked. He did not get stung... but while I was still laying on the floor and he was still shaking his pants some lady came around the corner... he sort of bolted out of the stress of it... I collected myself and followed him... and I have no idea what she thought of the whole situation, but it couldn't be good.

My life is absolutely not real.

I Don't Want to Go Back to Work Tomorrow....

The mean girl mom's finally caught up with me and I got TOTALLY ambushed on Friday... I was going to make a comic of it using cat pictures... but all the cat pictures that exist have captions on them already... so that was a no go.

Long story short, Sci-Fi/Fantasy books aren't Christian enough... even for children who know all of the characters in the Star Wars universe... Star Wars is Christian enough... books about aliens... not Christian enough... oh yeah, and their "Good Christian" mother is rooting for my programs to fail... openly... rooting for my failure. I just want to stay at home... She's rallied everyone against me... and I don't want to deal with it...

It was only a matter of time... I just wanted a little more honeymoon.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the Infinite Playlist of Revolting Youth

Or: how I learned to stop hating and love Michael Cera.

My general dislike of a certain actor has turned into a weird obsession that could only be described as “quirky”. Part of the problem may be that the majority of the movies and shows I have more or less been forced (you have to watch this one scene. It’s right at the beginning. Just this one scene and will turn it off… an hour and a half later… after the closing credits run) to watch in the last year have starred (or at least included Michael Cera). And, while I will admit that I did (do) get at least a little chuckle to a full out laugh out loud out of most of them, they have still been two hours (or more in the case of Arrested Development) that I am not getting back. So, the mandatoriness (I made this word up) of his infiltration of my life might be part of the problem I have with him. The problem might also stem from the fact that most (3/5 of the ones I can name) of his movies adaptations of books.

I struggle with adaptations of books. Seeing the movie first totally taints the books (and vice versa). So, I am challenging myself to read the books that the movies are based on and in all cases (accept Nick and Norah) before seeing the movie. First up is Youth in Revolt. The book is hilarious. I am only on page 24 and I have had numerous moments of laughing out loud. It’s a bit vulgar, I’ll admit, but it’s a 14-year-old boy’s diary in which he doesn’t hold back about anything (including what’s going on in his pants). Having never been a 14-year old boy I have no idea if these are common experiences or not, but either way they are amusing and C.D. Payne has managed to establish a likable, believable if not a bit odd character early on.

I am, in fact, looking forward to seeing the movie. I did a shameful thing and put it on hold at the library I work at. But, truthfully, I think just about anyone could star in this movie and it would still be hilarious. I am beginning to suspect that perhaps Michael Cera isn’t all that funny, but has managed to get on board for some ridiculously great books-turned-movies… I will let you know if my suspicions are continued with the next few books.

Which brings us to the next few books:

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is already on my Kindle. The movie was fantastic and the book is written in an intriguing style. Two authors take on the roles of the two title characters and the story unfolds as they share their sides of the story in alternating chapters. I am actually pretty excited about reading this one.

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life has got me a bit worried. First off, it’s a graphic novel series which isn’t really my thing. Secondly, there are six books out with a seventh to come. ß Go back and reread that. The movie (which covers the entire series is in theaters tomorrow {or today if I’m particularly bad about getting this posted}) was completed before the series… What implications is this going to have on the book series? Is that last book going to be done entirely in shots from the movie? This would COMPLETELY rival one of my biggest book-to-movie pet peeves: The full color movie picture insert in the middle of an otherwise perfectly good novel. I am dreading this one solely because of this. If I like the series, will book seven be a disaster?

So, there it is, my quirky little book club which is not entitled “Books Michael Cera has completely ruined” because maybe they weren’t ruined.... completely.

Wedding Website

Our wedding website can be found here. Please visit. Ryan has done an amazing job of getting it all set up. Things will be popping up new from time to time. We'll be putting up a photo gallery and links to our blogs and maps to the church and I believe there will be a message board for being generally obnoxious... so go check it out...

It also links back here... which means I need to start putting stuff here... maybe that post I promised back in April will happen. I have a few pictures from the library. I don't have any of the apartment, but I could get some. We'll see. There is also wedding knitting to be seen. and it's starting to look like something and a bit less pathetic... As soon as I can get Ryan to empty the memory card on his camera so I have room to take pictures I will make all of this happen. In the mean time, go add the website to RSS feed reader!

I Promise!

Ok, so it really doesn't seem like it's been two months since the last time I've blogged... It's been a crazy 2 months (or more accurately 2 weeks) and time has been flying. So, my promise to you, dear blog readers (Hi Rica!), is that I will, for posterity, post some pictures of my new lifestyle (i.e. the library where I work that is practically in Wisconsin, my apartment, the small amounts of knitting I've accomplished and The Bog) just as soon as I take them... it really has been a crazy month... Thanks, April, for keeping me on my toes.

I Fell in Love with the Boy at the Car Show...

ummm... or not...

Dear Ryan,
Do you remember that time that we were at the car dealership and I mentioned that it would be fun to go to the Chicago Automobile Show and you said that you had always wanted to go and we wondered aloud how much it would cost to go to the car show and then all of the sudden some sales guy was thrusting free tickets into our hands and we were like... well cool... and then we had to decide if you were actually going to go... and then we went because, seriously, why not?

Good... I'm glad you remember because it was just yesterday and if you didn't remember that then it might be time for you to see a doctor or something...

So, the car show was pretty awesome. We saw a lot of concept cars, which, I have to admit, all pretty much looked the same and had the same features (40 miles on electric alone, hybrid, and this weird thing going on with the back window, sort of a cross between a hatchback and a sedan with a bar through the back window where the sedan part meats the hatchback part... I know, they aren't actually meant to be on the road). I didn't take any pictures of the concept cars. Jeep probably had the coolest set up and it failed the most epically while we were watching. You got into a Jeep (driven by a professional) and rode around a track that demonstrated some of the Jeeps' sweet features. It had such nifty things as a bunch of logs that were driven over, a mock up of a pile of dirt that was about 5 feet high and the Jeep would go over it with one tire on the pile and one on the ground... but the coolest thing (with the biggest fail potential) was a mock up of a hill that was probably 2-3 stories high and went up at a 70 degree angle. While we were standing watching a Jeep lost traction (which was what was being shown off) on the hill and slid back down. It was frightening. No one was hurt, but it was sort of a poor showing... apparently the driver had slowed down in the middle or something. I didn't get a picture of that either.

But, I did get a picture of you in a Jeep.

This Jeep had a soft top with a moon roof... I don't quite get it, but it was fun.

I another fun car was from Suzuki


This particular car included seats that looked like the deck chairs at he public pool and came with two custom surf boards that matched the paint job.... not useful in central Illinois, but pretty fun, anyway.

Sorry, darling, you can drool all you want, but you can't have the Lamborghini.



And I fell even deeper in love with the Dodge Viper



Check out the custom paint on this one. Yes, the racing stripe is a snake print... and yes, I do think it's pretty cool.

We sat in, petted and critiqued a lot of other cars. Below are the pictures of some of them... unfortunately I'm enough of a car person to enjoy the car show, but not enough of a car person to know the names of the different cars later from vague pictures. They are included for your enjoyment. Please, feel free to remind me what sorts of cars they are if you want.







Yep, those are break... they appear to be very big... neat...